


I literally do not want your man

by ElianB



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: '80s Batman but if they didn't sell out & have Julia fall for Bruce, Bruce has no real appearances but he's significant off on the side, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Friends to Lovers, I think you could read this without knowing anything about anything, I'm pretty sure the fic provides all the context you need, If you asked Vicki though it's:, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Internalized Homophobia, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Not a main character and they're mentioned only in discussion, Pining, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:27:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29086827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElianB/pseuds/ElianB
Summary: Julia was taken with Vicki the second she laid eyes on her. It's just too bad Vicki was convinced that she wanted nothing more than to steal Bruce Wayne from her.
Relationships: Julia Pennyworth/Vicki Vale
Kudos: 3





	I literally do not want your man

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm reading the '80s. And what I'm taking out of it is Julia Pennyworth/Vicki Vale. There are references to events that occurred in the comics, but it's fine, if there's something you need to understand I've explained it in the text.

Vicki Vale had lovely red hair. It was short, hovering about her chin and creeping just the slightest bit down the back of her neck in tantalizingly tight curls. It was also, undeniably, the first thing that Julia had noticed about her upon striding into her office at Picture News to request a job. Vicki had stood from her seat the instant Julia had announced herself, her name sparking recognition and an animosity in Vicki that Julia had quickly found herself to be just as charmed by as those lovely red curls.

If Vicki’s hair was akin to the gentle, fiery beauty of a sunrise, the subtle pink that had painted itself across her face in her ire was like that of a grapefruit, abrasive, but deliciously so and leaving Julia with the desire for more.

She could completely understand how such a woman would have easily captured Bruce Wayne’s attentions and it was with that thought settled firmly in her chest that Julia offered her honest insistence that she had  _ no  _ romantic interest  _ whatsoever  _ in Mr. Wayne. Not before meeting Vicki and certainly not after, though this truth was one that she kept to herself.

Vicki was still eyeing her suspiciously, but after a moment she seemed to give it up with a cluck of her tongue and a sigh, her tone shifting from unveiled hostility to the brusque professionalism of a woman with a business to take care of. “All right,” she said. “You want a job and I can’t say I’m not personally invested in speeding along your ability to move out of Bruce’s house. How do you feel about a filing position?”

It was hardly ideal, but… “I’d say, it will do. For now.”

Vicki raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment on Julia’s rather ungracious acceptance. Instead she gave a nod, asked Julia for a bit of necessary information, and told her that if she came in Monday morning, bright and early at 8am, there would be a position waiting for her and someone there to show her the ropes. 

Julia smiled. “I really  _ do _ appreciate it Ms. Vale.”

Vicki smiled back, but it was terse.

And despite that, Julia found herself asking, “Would you mind walking me to the elevator?” as if a few more measly moments spent in Vicki’s presence may be all that was needed to change her mind about Julia.

It wasn’t a surprise when Vicki’s response was a wrinkled nose and a, “I’m sure your time spent in Wayne Manor has been downright resplendent, Ms. Pennyworth, but I am  _ not _ in the habit of being ordered around in my own workplace. You managed to get yourself in here, I’m sure you can get yourself out.”

Vicki was irresolute, all self-determination and pride, and though the misunderstanding was unfortunate, the display of confidence and self-empowerment sent a shiver trailing up Julia’s spine. Even more than Vicki’s beauty and the potential enjoyment of combating her in hopefully less hostile conditions than regarding the affections of Mr. Wayne, Julia, with the first blossom of genuine admiration, felt the beginnings of being terribly drawn to Vicki Vale.

“I didn’t mean any disrespect, Ms. Vale, honestly,” Julia said, brushing her hair back. The loose curls were quick to tumble back around her shoulders, but the momentary burst of cool air on her steadily heating skin was a relief. “It was nothing more than a request. I would never presume to think you lesser than me and certainly not for something as base as my having acquired proximity to Mr. Wayne and his wealth.”

Vicki eyed her for a moment and seemed to come to some sort of conclusion, the light of understanding entering her eyes and making Julia’s heart stutter, though Julia was sure to remind herself that what  _ sort  _ of conclusion Vicki had come to could hardly be assumed.

“I see,” Vicki said, Julia wondering how true that really was. “In that case, I suppose I will walk you out. I could use a quick stretch anyway.” She stepped out from behind her desk and came to Julia’s side, the two of them falling into step together. Vicki opened her door, letting Julia precede her out and, with a quick pat to her pockets, shut it behind her.

The hallway was rather drab - Julia had already noted as much on her way up. The walls were beige and undecorated, doors evenly spaced along them, but for where they were interrupted in the middle by the elevator on one side and a sitting area on the other. The sitting area looked out on the city from a wall of window and consisted of a couple love seats, a sofa, and a single potted plant all clumped together.

“How long have you been Editor?” Julia asked, much more interested in Vicki than anything their surroundings had to offer.

“Oh, a few months now. It…” Vicki pressed her lips together, her hands linking in front of her, a thumb worrying across her fingers.

Julia looked on with a concerned frown.

Vicki cleared her throat, glancing over at Julia, meeting her gaze. “Well, there were extenuating circumstances.”

There was something heavy in those words, something Julia was ignorant of, whether just because she was new in town or perhaps because Gotham pushed on from one tragedy to the next so quickly that it never allowed the knowledge of any one event to linger. “I see. I apologize if my question was insensitive.”

Vicki waved her off. “No, no, don’t worry about it. You can’t have known.”

They came to a stop at the elevator, Julia pressing the button to call it to their floor. Assuming that whatever had occurred, Vicki likely didn’t want to talk about it, at least, not with  _ her _ , Julia changed the subject. “Well, I suppose I’ll see you on Monday, then, if I’m lucky enough for our paths to cross.”

“Lucky, hm?” Vicki asked, a curious tilt to her head.

“Of course.” The elevator dinged, the doors sliding open. Julia spared it a glance, but turned back to Vicki as she stepped inside. “I think I’d like to get to know you.”

Vicki’s eyebrows raised at that.

And Julia, holding the elevator doors open, could not resist taking just enough time to say a parting, “Thank you, for walking with me.” There was perhaps a bit too much feeling in the words. It dragged at them and distorted them into something much more intimate that they had any right to be, making them leave her lips like a promise.

Vicki, however, didn’t seem to notice, looking on a bit baffled at Julia, and, as the elevator doors began to close, simply shaking her head and turning back towards her office. The doors sealed shut and Julia leaned back against the elevator’s wall, watching the floor numbers count down.

She supposed it was unlikely that Vicki would spare a single stray thought for her between now and Monday.

It was a bit of a disappointment, but not a surprise.

Vicki was, after all, in something of a relationship with Bruce Wayne.

\---

A week into working at Picture News and Julia had convinced Vicki to upgrade her filing position to that of a journalist.

She was mostly relegated to minor stories and fluff pieces, which irked her, but she couldn’t fault Vicki for taking into account her lack of experience. Julia was a woman of action and if she needed to prove she was capable of covering the major events then she’d do it.

Two weeks in and Julia had convinced Vicki to spend an evening with her.

She was still rather unfamiliar with Gotham and while Bruce had offered to show her around, she had a feeling that none of the places  _ he _ could show her were ones she particularly wanted to see or, for that matter, were places she could even afford to approach unless she were a decoration on his arm. So, she’d brought it up to Vicki, stressing the fact that Vicki was the only person she really knew in town and, to her delight, Vicki had actually agreed, taking her out to dinner after work.

The two of them had had such a good time, Julia sharing stories of where she grew up and Vicki comparing it to her childhood in Gotham, that Vicki, with no prompting from Julia at all, made plans to take her to the shopping district over the weekend.

Three weeks in and their evenings out were quickly becoming a regular fixture in both of their lives along with shared lunch hours and Julia was rather certain that Vicki considered her... if not a friend, then a friendly enemy.

With the exception of Vicki’s ever present belief that Julia would one day, without fail, become a rival for Bruce’s affections, it was a nice position to be in and Julia could be content with it. She  _ wanted  _ to be content with it, even. But, for some reason, contentment was proving harder to grasp than she would have liked.

Julia had assumed her interest in Vicki would be nothing more than a fleeting attraction, washed away by Vicki’s clear unavailability, what with her being in love with Bruce. Unfortunately, the only thing it seemed to deter was Julia from attempting any sort of obvious flirtation. It did nothing to lessen her admiration, which had only grown as they became closer.

It just made it sting.

The worst part was probably how Julia could always tell when Bruce had stood Vicki up - though the  _ how  _ of it was beyond her as she couldn’t imagine  _ not _ cherishing time spent with Vicki. Vicki didn’t usually talk about him, at least not to Julia. Their conversations were reserved for work, gossip, teasing, and the banal details of their lives. In the event that Vicki had been stood up, however, suddenly every conversation turned to raging against Bruce and any suggestion from Julia to officially break things off with him for good would be met with suspicion. It was an exhausting cycle that always ended with tired insistances from Vicki that Bruce was, “A  _ good man _ ,” and, “Really, Julia, he  _ is _ . He’s just a bit… flaky is all.”

It made Julia want to grind her teeth and march up to Bruce and give him a piece of her mind, her father’s objections, with his foolish dedication, be damned. It also made her want to snatch up Vicki’s hands and press a kiss to her fingers, watching her with heated eyes as she told her just how much more she deserved than a supposed ‘good man’ who could hardly give her the time of day.

Or maybe that  _ wasn’t _ the worst part. Maybe the worst part was actually having to see Vicki and Bruce together, or separate with Vicki silently fuming, at the few social gatherings they’d all three found themselves attending.

Maybe the worst part was the day Julia had arrived a bit late to see Vicki, a drink in her hand, glaring at Bruce from across the room, him standing amid a small gaggle of peers, an unfamiliar woman leaning into his side.

Julia passed her jacket off to the attendant waiting near the door, with a polite smile and a “Thank you,” and approached Vicki. She looked beautiful in a backless, dark green dress, the strings of the tie about her throat trailing down between her shoulder blades, brushing light skin adorned with freckles. The curls crawling down the nape of her neck almost brushed where it was knotted and seemed to be rather happily ensnaring her earrings.

She stopped at Vicki’s side, resisting the urge to place a hand to her lower back - trail her fingers up her spine, make her shiver - and instead rested her fingers, delicately, on Vicki’s forearm, careful not to jostle her drink, with a, “Vicki?”

Vicki wrenched her eyes from Bruce. “Oh, Julia,” she said with a faint smile. “Hi. Did you just get here?”

“I did.” Julia looked her over briefly before asking, “Are you all right?”

“What? I’m fine. Fine.” A quick glance in Bruce’s direction. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Julia hummed. “Would you care to come out on the balcony with me? It wasn’t too cool outside when I came in.”

“The balcony?”

“Yes.”

“Sure. Sure, why not.” Julia linked arms with Vicki, taking her drink from her for safety’s sake, Vicki sparing an, “Oh, you can have that if you want,” and they made their way to the balcony. Julia eyed Vicki’s drink, she wasn’t sure what it was, exactly, though it was bound to be quite expensive. There was a lipstick mark around the rim. As they slipped outside, Julia shot Bruce a nasty and took a sip from the glass, her mouth meeting its surface not far from where it still bore Vicki’s kiss.

The taste was almost sweet.

There was a small huddle of men smoking and laughing on the balcony, but Julia steered Vicki into the far corner, away from them, and it helped with making the men’s presence to not feel too obtrusive. There was a pair of cast iron garden chairs set at a table, but Vicki was evidently feeling drawn to the balcony’s edge, extracting herself from Julia and leaning her elbows on the wall, her eyes scanning the gentle night, Julia settling in next to her.

Vicki rested her chin in her hand and heaved out a sigh. “Maybe I’m doing something wrong.”

Julia scoffed. “Hardly. The man is…,” her frustration built, momentarily tangling her tongue, “he’s  _ impossible  _ Vicki. He should be out here  _ begging _ for your attentions - for you to speak to him, touch him, even just so much as  _ look _ at him.  _ You _ should  _ not  _ be always forced to chase and-”

“Julia.” Vicki was staring at her, a wide smile on her lips, impossible depths of fondness in her eyes.

Julia felt a tumultuous crack somewhere in her center, a flood of  _ want _ let loose from the already inefficient dam she’d built up around it.

Before she could do something,  _ anything _ , however, Vicki was gesturing to the ground, amusement lighting across her tone as she said, “You’ve spilled our drink.”

Julia glanced towards the hand that had been holding the glass, the hand which she’d been gesturing with, impassioned. The glass was, in fact, now empty. “Oh.”

And then Vicki was laughing, taking the glass from her and depositing it on the table, and Julia was laughing along with her.

When it had passed, Vicki asked, still smiling, “So, would you like another drink?”

“No, thank you. Who knows what I might do to the next one.”

Vicki half-snorted, shaking her head. “Yes, you were quite dangerous with that one, weren’t you?” A pause, the smile slowly being leached from Vicki’s features, then a sigh, and, “I should head back inside.” Vicki grabbed Julia’s hand, squeezing it, her gratitude carving a hollow out of Julia’s chest.

But Julia said nothing. Just squeezed her hand back. And let her go.

Vicki’s parting words were a soft, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Julia didn’t stay for very long after that.

Vicki had found herself back at Bruce’s side.

She looked happy there.

\---

It was well into the night, or early morning depending on how you looked at it, and for the second time this evening Julia was settling in to sleep, albeit with much more exhaustion this time around. Vicki had called her, waking her up, with the urgent promise of pursuing a story. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, but it also didn’t usually keep the two of them out quite so late.

Rather than returning to her own home, Julia had accepted Vicki’s offer to follow her back to her place because it was closer to where they’d found the action.

Vicki had gotten a pillow, blanket and pajamas for Julia because she was going to be camping out on Vicki’s couch and when Julia returned from changing into the pajamas it was to the couch all set up for her and Vicki seated at her computer.

Julia raised her eyebrows, astonished. “Work?” she asked. “ _ Now _ ?”

Viki glanced over at her. “Yeah, I’ll try to be quiet, I just wanted to get the most important details typed out before I went to bed. I’m still feeling kind of keyed up; I doubt I’d be able to sleep otherwise.”

Julia shook her head, getting herself situated on the couch. “You are  _ remarkably _ dedicated.”

Vicki huffed out a laugh. “I hope that’s supposed to be a compliment?”

“Oh, it is.” Julia snuggled into the pillow Vicki had left her, yawning. “I can't say I entirely approve of this sacrifice of sleep,” she waved vaguely in Vicki's direction, “but it  _ is _ one of the things I admire most about you. I’m sure without your dedication and drive Picture News would just fall apart.”

There was a long silence in which only the sounds of the keyboard reached Julia. Her eyes fell closed and she could feel sleep closing in hard and fast, her limbs heavy and the perfumed scent of Vicki surrounding her.

She’d very nearly dropped off when the clicking stopped and the soft padding of footsteps approaching her got her to force her eyes back open. She hummed inquisitively.

Vicki hovered before her for a moment, then sat down, right on the floor, their faces mere inches apart.

“You really think so?” Vicki asked, soft, serious.

Julia’s eyebrows furrowed. “Think? What? That you’re amazing at your job?”

Vicki nodded.

“Of course I do.” Julia pushed herself up onto her elbows. “Why? Are there- Have there been complaints?”

“No, nothing like that.” Vicki stared down at her lap, her hands curling into the fabric of her pants. “I don’t know, I just… suppose I wonder sometimes. The way I got the job was…” Here she grimaced, her hands clenching tighter. “I don’t know if you ever looked into it?”

Julia shook her head, wondering, now, if that’d been a misstep.

“Right. Well.The previous editor was involved in sketchy business. I was coming up to the office and saw Thorne, he used to be a big name around here, coming out. So I popped in to talk to the editor, I… honestly, I must have barely even been looking at him. Otherwise how could I have possibly missed it? You know? But I ran out as quickly as I’d gone in, I’d wanted to snap a picture of Thorne. I… I was just down the hall. I’d barely been gone a minute. And he… Oh, Julia…”

Julia had slid off of the couch before the tears building up in Vicki’s eyes had even begun to spill over, kneeling beside her and pulling her into a tight hug. She wasn’t sure exactly what had happened, but Julia felt rather secure in her inference that the previous editor had died, rather than quit or had the luxury of retiring.

“Vicki, you can’t possibly be blaming yourself for this?” she said, holding her tight, one hand rubbing soothing circles into her back while the other stroked her hair.

“Can’t I? I was  _ in the room _ , Julia. Just moments before it happened! How could I have missed it?”

“How could you have  _ missed  _ it?” Julia repeated, incredulously. “Why, how could you have  _ anticipated _ it! Vicki this has absolutely no bearing on you as a person or your abilities as editor. Regardless of what happened that night,  _ you  _ are  _ remarkable  _ at what you do. I swear you are. And I’m not exaggerating when I say I feel inspired by you at times.”

Vicki’s arms came up around Julia, holding her back and for a while they stayed there like that, holding each other, until, finally, Vicki pulled away, just a bit, and sniffled. Her hands were resting on Julia’s hips, her thumbs making an absentminded back-and-forth motion.

“Thank you,” Vicki said, clearing her throat, the typical ‘put-togetherness’ coming back into her tone as she swiped at her eyes with one of her hands. “I appreciate it. I, um,” she gave an awkward laugh, “I usually  _ do  _ know I’m good at my job, that I’ve earned it. I wonder if this is all just the late hour getting to me. Still, I have to say, it  _ is _ nice to know there’s someone else out there that’s so sure of me.”

She smiled up at Julia who, on her knees, was towering over her a little bit. Julia smiled back, stroking Vicki’s hair one last time.

“If you ever need a pep talk, I guess you know who to come to.”

Sleep came easy after that and in the morning, over breakfast, Julia decided to trust Vicki with the story of her mother and how the first time she’d met her father she hadn’t known him to  _ be  _ her father, and had instead mistakenly concluded that he must be her mother’s murderer and how, now, living in Gotham and coming to know him she was still sorting out her feelings about him.

Vicki held her hand through it and by the end declared them both in need of a nice, distracting assignment - if Julia was feeling up to it. Julia wholeheartedly agreed, though she ended up finding spending the day in Vicki’s clothes, due to their impromptu sleepover, to be much more distracting than the assignment itself.

\---

Now, Julia, for posterity’s sake, would attest to the fact that she did  _ not _ , in fact, _ want  _ to be used. Not in general and certainly not for rebound or in games targeted at attracting the attention of someone else. But...

_ But _ ...

She had, nevertheless, found herself feeling a fiery jealousy burning inside of her each time she saw Vicki with their coworker, Bill.

She was well aware that Vicki wasn’t actually interested in him. That Vicki actually found him a bit unpleasant and had told Julia, herself, that he came on much too strong. That Vicki was only talking with him and laughing with him and touching his shoulder and letting him wrap an arm around her waist because Bruce Wayne was present and Vicki hadn’t seen or spoken to him in more than a week and their whole relationship was just crumbling to pieces and Vicki wanted to make him jealous, to make him hurt like she was being hurt.

But…

_ Oh _ . What Julia wouldn’t give to be in Bill’s place.

Her crush was quicking swan diving into the depths of a love that Julia could not allow, not when it seemed it would always remain hopelessly unrequited, but she didn’t want to distance herself from Vicki either. So, she’d taken to prowling clubs for a couple one-night stands and attempts at new connections, but nothing seemed to help or stick.

She  _ wanted  _ Vicki. And not just anyone else could  _ be _ like Vicki.

She wanted to touch her, hot hands dragging along Vicki’s skin, to press inside her, make her shiver and gasp, to kiss her, bite her,  _ have _ her. And, ideally, be had in return.

Instead, she nursed her drink and spent the evening glaring at Bill and trying to be pleasant to the people who approached her, greeted her, and did their best to engage her in conversation.

It was when Vicki pressed a kiss to Bill’s cheek that Julia felt the need to excuse herself, depositing her drink on the nearest surface and escaping from the throng of people to quieter areas of the manor she’d found herself in this evening.

She was pulling open the door to what appeared to be a reading room when the clack of heels on the hardwood floors alerted her to someone coming up behind her. She quickly shut the door, not wanting to be caught peering into places she wasn’t allowed to go, and turned to find - Vicki.

It was Vicki coming down the corridor behind her, glancing around like she was looking for-

“Julia?”

Julia leaned back against the door, raising her hand in the facsimile of a wave. “Feeling nosy, Vicki?” she asked. She felt tired and hurt and it wasn’t Vicki’s fault, not really, but she couldn't resist letting loose at least one little barb.

Vicki frowned, speeding up as she came closer, assured now that,  _ yes _ , the woman in the dim corridor  _ was _ Julia. “Concerned, more like. Are you feeling okay? You practically stormed out of there.”

Julia sighed. “I just needed a moment to myself, that’s all.” A brief pause, then she placed her hand on the reading room doorknob and, feeling foolish for giving in even as she asked, she added, “Did you want to join me?”

Vicki glanced between Julia and the door, raising an eyebrow in clear amusement. “Heading into places we should be? Why, Julia, I thought you’d never ask.”

Julia laughed softly and opened the door, holding out a hand to Vicki and pulling her in with her.

‘A moment’ soon turned into ‘half an hour’ and that half an hour very quickly and unfortunately became another round of Vicki tearing Bruce Wayne apart.

Julia listened patiently for as long as she could, but finally had to break in and say, “Vicki, have you considered that it might be time to move on from Bruce?”

Vicki, really riled up now, scoffed, rolling her eyes. “What, so then  _ you _ can swoop in and snatch him right up? I don’t think so.”

Julia sighed. “I’ve told you this  _ many _ times before: I am  _ not  _ romantically interested in Bruce Wayne.”

Her eyes searched Vicki’s, hoping to have finally gotten through, but instead she found Vicki to still be entirely unconvinced. It was a blow, one filled with disappointment, irritation, and dejection.

How could she possibly convince a woman who had decided to  _ never be convinced _ ?

Nevertheless, Julia stepped closer to Vicki, encroaching on Vicki’s space.

A fervency had fallen over her, unable to stand for this misunderstanding continuing on any longer. When Julia spoke again, her voice was low, gentle, insistent - an entreaty for Vicki to please just  _ believe  _ that she truly meant what she said. “I can promise you that Bruce Wayne has nothing of interest to me. Except for  _ your _ attentions.”

Their eyes were still locked, so Julia did not miss a single instant in the shifting of Vicki’s expression - a rather transparent shift from distrust and irritation to surprise. Vicki’s eyes had widened, her mouth dropping open slightly, and her gaze was searching Julia’s intently.

“You-” Vicki began, the word tumbling from her lips with the force of a severe shock and Julia, in response, felt a dawning sense of dread, wondering if, perhaps, she’d made a mistake. She’d never planned to tell Vicki how she felt because she’d been certain Vicki wouldn’t return her feelings, but she had never, not for long anyway, considered that Vicki would… take it  _ poorly _ .

Whatever Vicki had been about to say, she didn’t finish, cutting herself off abruptly, a hand pressed to those lips that Julia had often found occupying her mind and which now threatened to attack her. There was a soft click of Vicki’s heel ringing out into the room as she took an unconscious step back. As if Julia were something to be  _ feared _ .

Her stomach roiling, Julia quickly took a few steps back of her own, as if all the two of them needed to undo everything happening here was distance.

“I shouldn’t have said anything,” Julia said.

“I- No- Julia- I just- I didn’t expect- I- I just need a minute. Just…  _ give me _ a minute.” Vicki still looked panicked, but she was approaching Julia now, arms out as if to keep  _ Julia _ from running.

“No, Vicki, I wasn’t thinking when I spoke. I’m not… expecting anything from you.”

Vicki closed the last bit of distance between them, grasping Julia’s hands between her own. “I’m so sorry that I… That reaction was inexcusable. But, Julia,  _ please _ , I’m just asking for time to think.”

Julia stared at her, confused. “To think?”

“I want to answer you properly. And if I’m going to do that I need to think.”

This was not what Julia had been expecting. Feeling like she must have been dropped into some kind of parallel universe she answered, “You can have all the time you need.”

\---

It had been a week since Julia had made Vicki aware of her feelings and Vicki, as promised, had been thinking about it - at work, at home, and relentlessly on the couple of evenings out she’d had with Julia.

It wasn’t that Vicki had never felt a... curiosity about women before. On the contrary, she’d been experiencing what she could identify as a vague attraction to the occasional woman ever since her late teens. The problem was, it wasn’t an aspect of herself that she’d ever bothered to explore. It was easy to be attracted to men. Expected. Safe.

And if she could brush her attraction to women to the side and never think of it as what it really was, well, she’d never seen the harm in that before.

There was, after all, nothing wrong with exercising a bit of self-preservation, right?

Right.

But… Well… Now...

Julia....

_ Julia _ .

Oh, Julia…

\---

Julia was having lunch in the café that she and Vicki usually frequented when Vicki came up and sat herself down at her table.

“You were right,” Vicki said as she adjusted her chair, brushing her hair out of her face and settling her purse down in front of her.

Julia, confused by both her sudden appearance and this apparent non-sequitur, furrowed her eyebrows. “About?” she asked, pulling her plate a bit closer to herself to make room for Vicki.

“About me and Bruce. I think it  _ is _ about time that I give him. What we’ve had just isn’t there anymore and hasn’t been for a while.”

Julia raised her eyebrows, surprised and pleased and a little heartbroken for her friend all in one. “Oh, Vicki. I hope it’s not insensitive to say that I’m happy you’ve finally made this decision. It’s always hurt to see you twisting yourself into knots over Bruce when he hardly ever seemed to try.”

Vicki shrugged, but there was a pained twist to her mouth. “Yeah, well, I guess that’s just the life of a playboy, philanthropist, father of two.”

Julia shook her head, reaching across the table to clasp Vicki’s hands in hers. “Don’t even try it. Nothing he has going on in his life could excuse treating you so poorly all this time!”

Vicki smiled, glancing down at their hands, then back up at Julia. “I’ve also been thinking about… the other thing.” She adjusted her hands to lace her fingers with Julia’s. “The you-and-me thing.”

Julia could feel butterflies swarming her stomach, but she did her best to ignore them, keeping her voice level as she said, “You did promise me you would.”

“I think, ‘yes’.”

Julia could swear her heart must have stopped. “Yes?”

Vicki nodded, squeezing Julia’s hands. “Yes. I want to try something with you. If you still want to, that is.”

Julia gave a quick glance around the café, making sure there were no prying eyes, and then lifted Vicki’s hands to her lips, pressing a chaste kiss to her knuckles. “I would like nothing more.”

\---

Their first date was to a restaurant the very next night and though there was a brief period of awkwardness where Vicki didn’t seem to quite know what to do, they quickly fell into their familiar pattern of talking and gossiping and laughing together and when they parted for the evening it was with an affectionate kiss to the cheek.

Their second date was interrupted by news of Mr. Freeze and a story to pursue, but Julia was at Vicki’s side the entire time and just as invested so the evening hardly felt like a loss.

The first time they attended an event  _ together _ was the most pleasant one Julia had attended since she’d come to Gotham. She was allowed to keep a hand to Vicki’s arm or lower back or about her waist and couldn’t deny feeling a spiteful hint of pleasure when Vicki told Bill, in no uncertain terms, that he really needed to start looking elsewhere.

And their first proper kiss happened two weeks later, Vicki sitting on Julia’s kitchen counter while Julia bustled about the kitchen cooking dinner for them. She’d just put a pan in the oven and was heading past Vicki to take a seat at the small table she usually ate her breakfast at when Vicki reached out to stop her, lightly grasping her arm.

Julia turned to her, curious. “Yes?”

Vicki tugged at her, pulling her in and loosely wrapping her legs around her hips when she had her close. “I was just thinking about how much I wanted to kiss you.”

Julia felt her heart stammer, wrapping her arms around Vicki’s waist. “Oh?” she said, soft and intimate. “Then I can’t imagine what you’re waiting for.”

And Vicki, because she was never one to  _ not  _ dive right in when she’d decided to pursue something, did just that, bringing her hands up to Julia’s face and kissing her, tentatively at first, but with quickly growing ease, her fingers curling into Julia’s hair while Julia pulled her as close to her own body as possible.

And Julia, in her kitchen with Vicki wrapped around her, her soft skin under Julia’s fingers, her lips under Julia’s mouth, her gasps and faint murmurs being made for  _ Julia’s _ ears-

Julia could feel the future unspooling before her and it felt  _ resplendent _ .


End file.
